Archie on his own

This is starting to become a real problem

Whenever Archie is on his own he HOWLS. I have followed advice of working it upwards of 5 minutes, but I've come to the conclusion that he simply hates being alone. If I leave him he will start howling as soon as I shut the door, if I leave him with a Kong he will either finish it and start howling or ignore it and howl.

I'm really at my wit's end here, I don't know what to do. I've tried another way which was one day I left him in my room about 15 times, each for only a couple of minutes and at the end he just couldn't be bothered to start howling again. But the next day it went back to how he normally is.

I have loads of stuff to do but I'm reluctant to leave him even for half an hour as he howls nonstop. I really need to sort this out.

Any advice?

wot do u do when he howls? do u ever go back in when he is howling?

try and stay out of the room until he stops and then go back in.

or perhaps put him in his crate, and slowly increase the distance between u and him and to actually going out of the door and keep it open, and perhaps advance from there?
does he follow u around the house during the day?

Jenny I have never gone back in while he's howling. I always wait 'till he's taking a breather.

He won't go in the crate anymore except to drink water so I don't think he'd be much happier if I shut him in

He follows me all day. Even if he's sleeping, if he hears me get up and go to another room, he will get up, follow me, and go back to sleep wherever I am. I can't even go to the toilet without him lying by the door

when u try shut him away in another room to build up the time, do u say anythin to him when u leave?

hopefully shadowboxer will be here to give u some advice soon

Hi Tuti,


I have the same problem with Barney and I did the leave for 5 mins and slowly increase and I also have baby gates strategically placed all over the house so he cannot follow me whenever he likes only when I let him

Well Barney will be 2 at the end of September and I left him for 4 hours the other day without any problems - he had previously chewed my whole windowsill off destroyed one coffee table half destroyed an other one and various other stuff

But after a very long time he is much more confident being left - its just taken him much longer than most dogs

have you tried leaving the TV or radio on when you leave him?

Hi Carole, yep, we have left the radio on for him but it makes no difference

Emm how long did it take before you could leave Barney? What did you do, did you carry on with life as normal and leave him, or did you try not to leave him for long? The problem here is that there are times when it is inevitable that Archie will be alone for an hour or so.. He never destroys anything either, just sits there and howls

I carried on with life as normal - it was really really hard because he would do that howling as well and also screaming high pitched - I'm sure the neighbours must have thought I was being cruel!


but the baby gates really helped because it stopped him from following me around the house but he could still see me - it really has taken a very long time but 4 hours the other day with no damage has made it worth while

I tried not to leave him for too long at first and build up - by the time he was Archies age I would leave him for 1 - 2 hours there would be alot of damage but its paid off now - and I can always redecorate

Did he stop howling eventually?

I'm thinking maybe he just doesn't like being in the kitchen... but the good thing about leaving him there is there's nothing to destroy... can't leave him in my room cos I don't know what I'd do if he chewed up one of my cameras or something

Edited to add: we have a problem with babygates, cos the gaps and doorways in the house are odd sizes and most babygates don't fit properly I had one in my room but Archie could get through the gaps so it was useless.

Tuti you can get an adjustable baby gate from Argos I think it is. We had to get that because our kitchen door was only 62cm wide and a standard gate was too big.